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Sunday, November 29, 2009

Well, like a crazy person I worked my butt off Thursday and Friday and managed to get my entry for the RWA Emerald comp all fixed up and sent off. Since the first three chapters are mostly fairly well polished, yesterday I wrote a query letter and started the synopsis (hate those things!) for the package I'll be sending to Silhouette in New York. As soon as those last 18,000 words have been written, I'm going to send it while I work on editing the rest. I'm assuming it'll be weeks or months before I hear back from them, so that will give me plenty of time to do some editing and maybe start the series I'm thinking about writing for them. My plan is if I get published with Silhouette, I'd like to try and write 2 (if not 3) books a year for them for the next couple of years. Once I've got that experience I'll then look at re-examining my SOAP series and begin querying agents again, but hopefully this time with a couple of published books under my belt.Gave myself a break from writing yesterday (plus I have a terrible head-cold and felt craptacular) but today I want to try and knock out at least 2000 words.Better get to it!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

I just got my results from entering RWA's Hi5 comp, for unpublished category romances, and I almost fell out of my chair when I found out I'd come 10th, which means I was only four measly entries away from the finalists and having it sent to HMB for a final judgement. The thought of it makes me dizzy!So of course now I'm very excited about getting the last 18,000 words written so I can submit it to Silhouette Romantic Suspense. Also, courtesy of one of my friends (you know who you are) I've decided to enter it in RWA's Emerald comp, and it closes tomorrow. No pressure or anything...Well, I'd better get to work then. EEEEKK!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Unless you live under a rock or don't have the Internet (in which case, how are you reading this post?) you would have seen that Harlequin announced a new venture this week, Harlequin Horizons, which was quickly renamed DellArte Press when organisations like Romance Writers of America reacted rather strongly to this apparent 'vanity' publishing venture.I'm not going to say anything much about it, I think everything that could be said has probably already been splashed across the Internet. Although I'd love to throw my two cents in, I'm not one for posting about things that have already been blogged to death. I never commented on Heath Ledger's death, though that really got me. He was a year younger than my hubby and I really, truly believe he was the great male actor of our generation and it makes me sad to think of all the performances we'll never get to see. But my point was when that happened I never said a word, since I'm sure there were more than enough tear soaked posts about it when it all went down.So no, I'm not saying anything about DellArte press or the alleged news that authors rejected by Harlequin are being subsequently directed to the DellArte web page. And I certainly won't say anything about rips-offs or unsuspecting, vulnerable, desperate writers being taken advantage. Nope. Not one word.Instead I'll tell you that last week I only managed around 4000 words and this week I'm not faring much better. Probably up to the 3000 word mark so far, but am off to do some writing now and hoping to get a couple of thousand done tomorrow.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Nathan Bransford always has the most interesting posts. His latest one is about the apparent fact that every second person these days is writing a book and questions why this might be.For a start, I think media has a lot to answer for in this. With authors like JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, etc, etc who rose from relative obscurity to become best-selling, richer-than-the-queen-of-England authors with smash hit movies being talked about all over the place, well, I guess its kind of like winning the lotto. Its the dream. Fame and fortune and being viewed as a creative genius. Lets face it, who wouldn't want that?I've been doing this for many, many years now and while the thought of what monetary windfall I might get from having my books published isn't bad, the thought of being famous, of being a household name, of having my photo taken because I happen to walk into a shop and buy a new handbag scares the bejesus out of me. I don't want that. No way, no how. Even the thought of getting 'fan mail' wiggs me out. I write because I'm compelled to, its in my blood. I try to get published because when I get a little buzz out of something I've written, or something I've read of another author's, I want to share that with people. I don't expect to make very much money when I do finally get published, because that's not the reason I'm here. I guess there's no right or wrong reason to do any of this, but for me thoughts of fame and fortune are the last things I expect from my hard work.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I haven't been around much firstly because I've been doing a lot of writing (10,000 words last week) and also because my computer packed it in and I had to take it to get fixed. Unfortunately I also got a rejection from Samhain for that novella I whipped up back in October and then found out I didn't final in this year's RWA STALI competition. So it hasn't been my week all 'round, really!I'm continuing on working with my SRS manuscript, I have about 20,000 words left to write on it which I hope to get finished in the next couple of weeks, computer problems aside. After that I need to decide where I'm going next in terms of my on-going projects. Do I add 50,000 or so words to the manuscript I submitted to Samhain and send it elsewhere (I'm thinking possibly Silhouette Nocturne)? Or do I get back to the re-write I started on my historical? Or do I go back to my good old SOAP manuscripts? I've been thinking about them a lot lately. Maybe now that I've had some time away from them it would be a good idea to go back to them with fresh eyes and pick up with them again. I did invest a lot in them, probably more than I'd ever put into anything else and no matter what I just can't quite seem to stop thinking about them.So I suppose I've got my answer then, haven't I?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

This post isn't just any post. I wrote it with the new Intelligent I got yesterday. So now I don't have to be sitting in front of the computer to write. All I need is my magic pen and a notebook and I can write anywhere at any time. The pen memorizes what you write and then later you upload it to the computer.The only problem being I'm going to have to get used to writing long hand again instead of typing. I got a cramp in my had from writing one paragraph because I just don't write with a pen that often these days. I suppose I'll get used to it quick enough again. So here's to getting heaps more writing done!Oh, and an update word count wise, I got another 2000 words done Thursday, bringing the weekly total to 7000. Not bad, but maybe I'll do better with my new toy.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Just a quick post, with nothing terribly interesting to report. I'm obviously waiting to hear back from Samhain with no word yet. In the meantime I've gone back to working on my Silhouette Romantic Suspense manuscript as I planned. So far this week I've written just over 5000 words. Not bad for 3 days work I guess. Since the past couple of days at home have been somewhat chaotic, its probably actually a really good achievement. I guess if I could average out 5000 words a week, I'd have the manuscript finished in another six to seven weeks. Seems a long time since I'm an I-want-it-finished-now kinda person. But I can only write so much and short of staying up all night every night for a week, I'll just have to be patient.